


Bury It and Rise Above

by CaptainWorsfold



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Family Drama, Mental Health Issues, Modern AU, Perc'ahila of course, Some of this will be very British, Sorry Not Sorry, The Briarwood case is different in this, mostly - Freeform, sort of slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 03:55:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainWorsfold/pseuds/CaptainWorsfold
Summary: Upperclass society was something that neither Percival nor Vex’ahila wanted to be involved in. The only reason that either of them were at that ball in the first place were as agreements to their families, and yet somehow that managed to create a scandal. Now the two of them are thrust together through the chaos that follows the media’s mistakes and they find themselves spending a lot more time together.Modern AU Perc'ahila based in Modern Day UK.





	Bury It and Rise Above

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based in a sort of modern day UK, with the political scene being the background for much of the changes I’m making. A form of the Briarwood incident has already taken place, but in a way that means that the other De Rolo’s are all still alive, Percy estranged from them. Vex and Vax’s backgrounds mainly haven’t changed, only modernised and picked up from Heredity and Hats (Percy having not met them by that point). And other members of Vox Machina are going to appear throughout, of course. 
> 
> This will be mostly slow burn Perc’ahila with discussions of depression, abuse, manipulative family, and trauma, but also fluff, cuddles, and some smut. And fluff. Lots of fluff. 
> 
> This will be written in third person free indirect alternatively between Percival and Vex, so next chapter will be Vex's view, etc.

The hall was beautiful, he assumed if people liked that sort of thing. Marble cladding and gold filigree always seemed to scream over-sophistication, especially if you didn’t want to be there or be the sort of ‘sophistication’ that they expected. _They_ are people like his family, who required that he attended one of these events every year. His choice this time was a rather generic family gala where multiple families were there and he could sneak out around two hours before the end without notice.

At least, that was the plan for Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III. A plan that he had hoped he could have maintained if it wasn’t for his family’s penchant for stopping him from leaving, and making things worse with their already strained relationships.

This first started, as he sort of expected, with Vesper. She wore a dress she’d apparently designed by herself, and a pair of high heels worth more than most people made in a year.

“Percival, I’m so glad you could make it!” She exclaimed and wrapped him into a tight hug. Percival pulled his lips into a tight smile and lightly hugged his sister back. When she let go he messed with the wrist of his dinner jacket, one his mother had provided him with after he had worn an off-the-shelf Next suit the previous year to a similar gala. Not that it really should have mattered, he may be a De Rolo but he was not in the limelight the same way the rest of his family was. In fact, he was the black sheep of the family, the one that tried to lead as normal a life as possible. Away from the cameras, away from the drama.

A charity ball was an inconspicuous event, an event that had very few cameras that would be able to acknowledge his existence. He was quite happy about that fact, and that’s why he always chose this ball. Always.

After Vesper, came Whitney who insisted on using this opportunity to explain all of her new beauty range to him, and the agreement for a new set of liquid lipsticks she was planning on selling with her name on.

At this point he’d finally managed to make it to the bar and order a Jim Bean, for which his father reordered him a ‘good’ whisky. Percival thought Jim Bean was fine, but his father was paying so he accepted it. Around this time, he heard a voice that he thought sounded like heaven say to him “I take it you don’t want to be here either,” as a woman with dark brown hair and wearing a sapphire coloured dress sat down beside him at the bar. “I’ll take the same as him, put it on Slydor’s tab,” She smiled at the bartender and got comfy on the barstool. “I’m Vex,” She offered her hand for him to shake.

“Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, and I’m only here out of obligation.” He said, shaking her hand and taking a drink the second afterwards. He managed to rise a smile to her, taking in her appearance and smiling. She wore a fascinator with blue feathers the same colour as her dress, which lay in her braided brown hair and was held together by an ornate bear decoration. Her chocolate brown eyes were lightly lined, Percival noticed how refreshing this was compared to his sister Whitney’s makeup routine. In this room especially, it was noticable. In fact, against everything Vex was noticeable. Her confidence in a way that didn’t seem to want to harm things, her smirk, her dress. She wasn’t out to be noticed, and to him she was the most noteworthy.

“I’ll call you Percy,” She smiled and nodded at him, he smiled back. “I’m here out of obligation too, me and my brother have to show up at these things every now and again for my father. Not that we want to.”

Percy took a long drink of his whisky. It didn’t really feel like it was worth the extra money between that and his preferred supermarket brand. It was the same colour and tasted almost the same, only sweeter than his preferred type. “Once a year for me,” He nodded and lifted his glass to adjust the matt below it slightly.

“Your family runs this then?” She motioned around her to the hall and the banners. They’d run something similar to this every year and this was not any different from those that came annually before. The charities had changed over the years but they’d eventually settled on this one.

“Unfortunately.” He growled bitterly, taking a long sip of his whisky. “And yours?”

“Syldor Vasser.” She cringed, drinking from her glass.

“The MP? Foreign Secretary?” She nodded, he shuddered. “I’m sorry.” Syldor Vasser was his father's current enemy within the cabinet. Percival stayed out of the family because of these issues before. However, unlike the others of this style, Vasser simply hated his father but did not want his position or his power. Vasser was happy where he was, which gave Percival a little confidence that Vex’s choice to speak with him was simply a coincidence. Not like those from before.

“You’re a de Rolo, you have the same issues, isn’t your father the Chancellor?””

“Don’t remind me.” He laughed slightly and she joined in.

“Percival! Who have you found here?” Julius yelled, slapping on his brother’s back and causing him to snort into his drink.  Percy couldn’t help but groan as he did, seemingly from the impact but also from his brother’s impeccable timing.

“Vex, Julius. Julius, Vex.”

“A pleasure” Julius beamed, moving to kiss her knuckles. She pulled her hand back quite abruptly before apologising under her breath. “Please allow me to steal away my brother my lady Vex.” She nodded, not looking up at Julius and a red flush spreading across her cheeks. “Percival.” Percival had heard his brother speak but he wasn’t paying attention to him, more his eyes rested on Vex with concern.

“I’ll speak to later, Percy.” She smiled and winked at him, strolling off and holding her own drink. Percival watched her for what felt like an eternity after. He hadn’t intended to, but he couldn’t help it.

“Percy?” Julius wiggled his eyebrow at him and Percival responded with a hard glare. He always had to ruin it.

“Shut up, what do you want?” Percival glared at his brother, he did not want to be involved with his brother’s attempts at humour at his expense.

“Mother would like to speak with you.” Oh good.

“About what?” Percival paused, swirling the remainder of his drink around his glass.

“You know what.” He actually didn’t know. He wasn’t sure what exactly he had done, but Percival could think of multiple things without thinking too hard about it.

The ballroom was crowded. Too crowded. Too many well-dressed people in expensive clothing for Percival’s liking. Too many people looking at him like he wasn’t welcome. Too many people who he knew didn’t want him there.

“Percival! Have you met Syldor?” He looked the tall, dark haired man, taking in the similarities between him and Vex but noting the differences in the ways that he held himself compared to her. His stern look pierced straight through him as if he wasn’t there, and he seemed to have no awareness of his own daughter’s presence at the ball.

“Hello Foreign Secretary.” Percival bowed slightly, turning sharply to his mother as he did. “Mother you wanted to speak to me.”

“Yes,” His mother’s lips pursed as she finally seemed to see her son, looking over his . “I heard you attended an event for Zahra Hydris.” Percival looked at her with a look of pure confusion. “The leader of the opposition.”

“Ah, that event. I was there because my friend Keyleth was presenting some of her artwork.” Keyleth’s art was taking off in quite a spectacular way. Her art had been shown at a gala that was being hosted at the head quarters of the opposition, many seeing Keyleth’s art as having a political message. Percival wasn’t sure if she intended it that way, or if it was the product of holding those messages to heart anyway.

Of course, Percival had known that Zahra Hydris and her partner Kashaw would be at that event. He’d helped Keyleth organise the invites and design them. He’d even worked on the method which had allowed them to emboss the invites with gold filigree. “You were seen to be endorsing the opposition.” Percival would never admit to his mother’s face in front of other cabinet members that that was what he was doing; especially in suggesting for Keyleth to accept the chance in the first place. He was lucky that no one had taken pictures of his hand shake with Hydris.

“No one knows who I am mother, and I aim to keep it that way.” Percy looked his mother in the eye and turned to walk away without another word to her when she didn’t respond. She only smiled a thin smile at him and returned to her conversation with Syldor, her smile widening at his suggestion that Percival did not overhear.

Percy took this dismissal to avoid his family completely. He stayed close to the edge of each of the rooms, moving through the cacophony of noise to find a way out. He needed air. He needed to be far away from his family.

So very, very far away.

He ended up, for a short while, in the silent auction room; placing a bid on some Scanlan tickets so there would at least be some record that his was here if someone claimed he hadn’t attended anything that year. He wasn’t sure he’d actually be able to afford them if they went much higher than what he had placed.

At this point he found Vex again, or rather she found him.

“I see you got away,” She grinned at him, passing him a whisky. He turned to her, confused and looked over her. He didn’t want to seem to cautious, but the run ins he’d had at events like these had made him aware of the actions of others. And nervous too. “Don’t worry, its what you actually ordered earlier. You just look in need of a friend, or at least someone to talk to.”

“Thank you.” He took a sip of the whisky and smiled. She’d got him the Jim Bean, the thing he’d ordered before his father had forced him to change. She’d heard? And remembered? He looked over her, his eyes catching on the blue feathers in her hair. “Which table are you on for the meal?”

“Eight I think, I’m with my father and Devana.” She took a sip of her drink, flinching a little bit at the idea. “Where are you?” They approached the seating plan, Percival motioning towards the mixture of tables in their uneven patterns without reason.

“With all of my family, wherever they are.” He sighed, already regretting that idea. He loved and cared for them plenty, but he disappeared from this culture for a reason. The table of more than enough de Rolo names surrounding it. More than enough without him being there and yet, there he was. “Can I find you afterwards?”

“Of course, darling,” She glanced around the room for a moment, smiling widely at him. “Am I more enjoyable than your family then?”

“Than any alternative option…” He paused for a moment. “wait…” She laughed at him and he smiled more.

“I’ll speak to you later, Percy” She smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. For once this felt normal, not a horrible risk that came with life. For once, Percival didn’t hate the prospects before him at the ball; simply, he felt, sort of, at home with it all.

The meal itself had to break all of that. “Hey _Percy_.” Julius smirked at him when he sat down.

“Yes?” The white haired de Rolo raised his eye brow at his brother, rolling his eyes lightly at how Julius was acting. He only did this if he wanted to annoy Percival, and Percival knew that all too well.

“How’s Vex?” He grinned, his smirk glinting in his eyes, ever present within his words.

“She’s fine.” Percival growled. He raised an eyebrow at his brother’s question.

“What are you working on anyway?” Julius wasn’t really bothered by that idea, he just wanted to not seem like a fool in front of the rest of the family.

Percival could talk about the latest artistic engineering project he’d been contracted to do for hours, but he just settled on saying:  “Some upgrade work for the National Theatre, why?” Thinking about how much he would like to talk about the new stage mechanisms and pyrotechnics.

“Oh, just wondering if you wanted to come back to the company.” Percival had been about to point out to his brother that he had never once, nor ever would, work for the de Rolo company. He was about to point out that the company had no role he would ever want and he was happy to tinker away in his workshop surrounded by books.

“And what does Miss Keyleth do?” His mother’s voice cut lightly against him, reminding him of his place and attempting to control once again. Always trying to control what was happening, always. Controlling the conversation so that it was Percival’s successes on show, but his weakness, what everyone else was good at and not him. Percival wasn’t sure if it was an intentional thing, or whether his mother could only really talk about personal relationships with her children and not work goals or anything else.

“She’s an artist.” He remarked as he cut into the pasta, this was some recipe with white truffle oil. He could smell the nutty texture and it turned his stomach slightly; too much of a show of luxury.  “I think she’s doing some mural work at the moment.”

“And does she know who you are?” The question hung there in a way it felt like it shouldn’t. It hung over the group as a memory, and Percival hated that memory. He wanted nothing to do with that memory, especially when Keyleth was in a relationship, and supporting Percival in a way his family never could manage.

“Yes mother,” Percival snapped, his knife scraping across the china of the plate. “And I’m sure if I break her heart in anyway her private detective boyfriend will hunt me down and drag me back to apologise.”

“Don’t do this here.” His mother said, glaring at him and somehow keeping her voice at the same level, as if it was all his fault for what had happened to the family before.

“You brought her to me mother.” A growl came from low in his chest. Darkness curled in his eyes. The air cooled against his skin and the pain echoed tightened in his chest. “You invited _them_ into our lives.”

“Percival.” His father’s voice cut through the haze created by it all, his father’s anger as boiled as Percival's was. Cold against the echoing pain that Percival felt. His chest felt tighter, his vision blurred. He needed an out and soon.

“I need to breathe.” He said, dragging his chair out behind him and stumbling to his feet. “I’m sorry.” The words were barely audible to Percival, barely a whisper in the back of his throat.

When he made it through the doors to the balcony he felt the weight lift from his chest. It didn’t move very much, it still hung there as he tried to concentrate on what was before him. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t find a focus point, a place, or feeling or something. He needed that. He needed that soon.

“Percy. Concentrate on me Percy.” He hadn’t heard her footsteps, or the door click closed behind her. The second that Vex took his arm, and the soothing nature of her voice. He had found it. His crisis point, the calming nature that he needed. “In… Out… In… Out…” He timed his breathing to her words, his eyes focusing on hers as they blurred with the tears welling there.

“Vex...” He managed to mutter, looking over her peaceful, understanding features.

“Don’t Percy, you don’t need to explain.” She placed her hands on his cheeks, looking him securely in the eyes as she cut off any attempts of him explaining what had triggered this. “You don’t need to speak.” Her left hand ran down one side of his face, in time with one of his exhales. “Just breathe.”

After standing like that for what felt like a life time, Percival had finally felt his breathing return to normal, and his heart rate slow. His body relaxed. He never knew that Cassandra stood just on the other side of the door, completely unaware as to why his brother was so affected by the dinner time conversation.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Her smile light up her whole face once again. “Shall we get out of here? Get you home?” He nodded at the idea, because it was maybe the best thing he’d heard all night, and let her lead him back through the hall and to the entrance of the building. “How did you get here?”

“Northern Line.”

“I can drop you back?” She suggested, grinning and moving to grab his hand as they walked down the sandstone steps that lead to the building. “My motorbike is near by.”

“That sounds good, Vex.” He ginned, letting her lead him to the Yamaha Ninja bike waiting for her in one of the few parking spaces the building had. She passed him a second helmet she’d had in the back compartment as he told her his Camden address. She shivered, he gave her his jacket.

He held on tight to her as she sped off through the streets of London. Her helmet painted with the same bear and blue feather decoration that she had worn in her hair, the pattern glittered in the light of the street lamps and shimmered through the neon signs and vibrant paint of the walls around them.

They came to his house quicker than Percival expected and he found himself rather flustered as he attempted to pull his helmet off. His stark white hair tussled and messy from the helmet and the journey.

At this point Vex grabbed Percy’s phone from his pocket, grinning as she tapped away her number onto a contact on his phone, a blue heart emoji next to her shortened name. Just Vex. And he would have been annoyed about it messing with how he organised his contacts only because it was just Vex, he didn’t care. Somehow. Even if he would add her last name later on to keep things uniform, and drop her a text saying that he was Percy; hoping to high heavens that she would never give him the wrong number.

“Call me if you ever need help, Percy.” She smiled and winked at him, her grin never faltering. “I’m not far away.” She motioned towards down the street and Percy guessed that she lived around in Camden.

 “Thank you Vex.” He smiled tentatively, passing her the helmet and correcting his glasses. He watched as she settled down onto the seat of her bike once again. She hadn’t lowered the visor yet, she was still staring at him with a smile. “Thank you so much.” She leant up and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Wildflowers, like bluebells and spring. Hope and warmth. Two feelings that didn’t disappear from that night. She gave him hope and warmth when he couldn’t find it where he needed to. Hope and warmth.

He stood watching as she sped off, his suit jacket wrapped around her shoulders, hope and warmth still filling him.

At least, until the morning. At least until his brother FaceTime’d him laughing at around eight o’clock the next morning, waking Percival up to the sound of his laughter. It wasn’t the alarm clock that Percival wanted to hear, ever, it reminded him too much of the time before the family arguments. Painful because this was bitter compared to the giggles of before, this was something at Percival’s expense. And Percival hated it.

“So _Percy_ , is Vex still with you?” Julius managed to say eventually, as his brother palmed the bedside table for his glasses.

“No?” Percival glared at Julius, who widened his grin and laughed again. “Why?”

“You made it to the gossip columns brother.” Shit. _Just_ what he needed.


End file.
